Jambon Beurre

Culinarily, the French are known for their elaborate meals. With just three ingredients, the jambon beurre sandwich breaks with tradition — or at least it appears to do so at first glance.

The ingredients are embedded in the name: “jambon beurre” translates from French as “ham butter,” which, except for a crusty baguette, is everything that’s needed to assemble one of your own. How come, then, does this sandwich taste as sophisticated as any other French dish? As usual, the answer is never as simple as it may seem.

You could say that the sophistication is baked into this sandwich’s ingredients. Think about it: A thick baguette fresh out of the oven is good enough on its own. But split and smear that baguette with room-temperature butter and stack wafer-thin slices of cooked ham inside it, and you elevate it to a whole other level.

When you factor in the sheer amount of time, effort, and skill that go into making the bread, butter, and ham so the jambon beurre can ultimately come together, you realize that this sandwich doesn’t break with French culinary tradition after all; it embodies everything about it.

For best results, use unsalted French butter and jambon de Paris (Paris ham). Since these two ingredients are costly and somewhat difficult to source, regular unsalted butter and thinly sliced country ham make good substitutes.